Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer says the franchise is “beginning a new chapter” and Schiano has “a vision of what he wants to do.”

Schiano transformed Rutgers from a struggling college football program into a Big East contender during an 11-year run with the Scarlet Knights. The Bucs are banking on him to have the same kind of impact in Tampa Bay.

Schiano replaces Raheem Morris who went 17-31 in three seasons. The Bucs were 4-12 in 2011, missing the postseason for the fourth straight year.

The introduction happens little more than 24 hours after word first leaked about Schiano heading to Florida. ending with confirmation of the hire by the Bucs and a press conference Thursday afternoon with Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Prunetti thanked Schiano and his family for helping to build the Rutgers football program.

“We would like to thank Greg Schiano and his entire family for their commitment to Rutgers and helping build our football program,” stated Pernetti. “The Rutgers Football program is stronger than it has ever been and is built to last. Our program will never sacrifice its core values of family, integrity, trust and the balance between academics and athletics. This is an attractive job in a BCS conference in the nation’s largest media market. We are excited to find a new coach to lead our program.”

Prunetti said things moved very quickly between Schiano and the Buccaneers and he only became aware of the talks within the past 48 hours.

KYLE FLOOD NAMED THE INTERIM HEAD COACH

Kyle Flood (Rutgers)

With National Signing Day less than a week away, Assistant Coach Kyle Flood has been named interim head coach.

“(Flood) has great relationships with the players. He has great relationships with recruiting. Already, we’ve had some impromptu meetings, he has embraced it. He’s excited to do it,” said Prunetti. The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I’m going to get the staff together and we’re going to figure out how to get this class in here.’ So far, so good. Kyle has been around here a long time and it was just an obvious choice.”

Prunetti would not reveal any names he had in mind as a replacement but said, “Any AD worth whatever his university pays has a list in his pocket at all times. In my mind, and I think in a lot of people’s minds affiliated with Rutgers, I think the hope and expectation was that we would be able to keep Coach Schiano in here for a long time. At any moment, that can change and I’ve been ready for this moment since the day I walked on this campus so we have been ready.”

Prunetti realizes that the timing of Schiano’s departure is bad with National Signing Day next week. For Rutgers recruits he had this message. “I think the message will be that the program that you committed to, if they are committed, or the program you are considering, is the same program that it was two days ago. It is going to stand for the same things. The core values are things that are never going to be sacrificed. We are still going to rely on our players and our student-athletes in the program in hopes that the student-athletes and recruits to look at us and say, ‘this is the right or wrong kind of person to have at Rutgers.’ We are going to continue to all the things that we have done that have made it what it is today.

Rutgers students aren’t thrilled about the development.

“It’s kind of shocking” said one student, “I didn’t even know he was considering leaving -now that he is going… it’s kind of like – what’s going to happen?

Another student said “I think there definitely is some unhappiness among some of the student body- I know they are disappointed – and people are kind of – shocked that he’s leaving…I mean we have gotten better over the years but I wouldn’t say that we’ve gone as far as we could with him.”

One student sitting nearby said “you know our recruiting class is going to suffer big for the first year or two at least, and we got one of the best recruiting classes this year, so, I don’t know… I hope we can get someone better who actually can follow through and make Rutgers the elite team that they should be.”

Other students had a more negative reaction.

“He’s a trader – he’s a trader!” said one young man, “we were all looking forward to this next season coming up and now he’s leaving – it’s definitely a disappointment.”

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A young woman sitting nearby said “I just would like to see in the program for a little bit longer at least – and stick with our team…we felt like he was still building the program and it could get bigger and now he’s gone and now we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Another student said “terrible- how could he do this to us? I don’t know…he built friendships with his team and now he’s totally leaving them – so it’s kind of like betrayal…I feel like he’s really letting down his team – in the middle of what he’s trying to do.”

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• 2006 Eddie Robinson/FWAA National Coach of the Year
• 2006 The Home Depot National Coach of the Year
• 2006 Walter Camp Football Foundation National Coach of the Year
• 2006 Liberty Mutual National Coach of the Year
• 2006 George Munger (Maxwell Club) National Coach of the Year
• 2006 American Football Monthly National Coach of the Year
• 2006 BIG EAST Coach of the Year

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